Product Reviews

5improvements and with new stuff

Posted: 09/10/2013

Apart from roster changes there's other new stuff and improvements:* more convincing handling* marginally improved graphics* difficulty levels are more balanced* the penalty system is improved...you also have more options now* you can save your progress whenever you want* the Champions Mode has expanded into a Scenario Mode* you can race 11 classic cars and 17 legendary drivers* four classic tracks (Brands Hatch, Imola, Estoril, Jerez)

It was the classic cars and drivers that made me pre-order this game. These cars are much more difficult to handle, even when compared to racing the regular cars in sim-mode. You can truly feel the raw power in them. I also like how they changed the visual look of the game when you race in this mode, it raises the immersion.

You can race with these classic cars and drivers in a custom championship, single race, time trial, time attack, and the scenario mode. You can use them on the new tracks as well. So there is a lot you can experience with this mode. Each of the cars feels somewhat different and driving them on modern tracks is a completely new experience.

It would have been easy for Codemasters to limit your experience with these classic cars and drivers, but instead they have left it completely open. This is well worth some praise.

The Scenario Mode was surprisingly fun as well. It adds an arcade-like feel to the game. It is a revamped version of the previous game's Champions Mode.

Apart from all the above things F1 2013 is expectedly similar to the previous games. To me that is a positive thing. Without the Classic content I would have rated the game 4/5. But since it adds something rather unique and new with this mode, and overall improves on the previous game, it is well worth 5/5 for me.

The only way I can see Codemasters improve with their F1 series is to include the GP and GP2 classes. It would be awesome to race with these cars as well. If the MotoGP and SBK games can include all of their classes, there's no reason Codemasters can't. Wishful thinking perhaps.

3between boredom and exploration

Posted: 12/08/2013

The Good:1. huge open-world to explore2. numerous ways to customize your character's skills3. can learn a trade, buy houses and horses, marry etc4. the graphics of the natural environments are impressive5. an abundancy of side-quests

The Bad:1. none of the characters in the game have any depth and personality2. the storyline is unengaging and uninteresting3. the companion AI is quite dumb4. the game crashed every three hours or so5. a bug prevented me from completing one of the major quest chains6. there are many glitches in the game7. the graphics of people's faces shows little improvement since Oblivion8. every dungeon map looks the same9. the combat system is clumsy and tedious, where you constantly need to switch between menus and submenus

Bottomline: if you want an RPG where the characters have a reasonable degree of personality and where the storyline truly engages you, then Skyrim is not the game for you. If you just want a huge open-world to explore and interact with then you'll like it a lot.

4one of the most immersive rally games around

Posted: 12/08/2013

The Good:1. very long tracks with most lasting 4-5 minutes2. immersive cockpit experience3. good arcade-sim driving physics4. weather effects featuring snow and rain5. night-time racing stages6. nice graphics7. can save in-between stages in the Championship, i.e. you can re-do stages for a better result

The Bad:1. driving physics is not as convincing as a Colin McRae game or Richard Burns Rally2. you don't get a proper game ending unless you finish in the top three in the Championship3. can't unlock Extreme difficulty unless you win the Championship on 'Professional' difficulty

Bottomline: the only bad part of this game is that you can't unlock the Extreme mode unless you win on Proffessional mode first, which is very difficult. This matters because in Extreme mode you get one extra track per race day, in other words more than 30 extra tracks in the whole Championship.

5a quality game

Posted: 12/08/2013

The Good:1. big open-world to swing around in2. the combat is fun and not overly technical3. great storyline that continues from where the film left off4. the graphics are good5. challenging boss fights6. more of a stealth game than a brawler7. voice casting and music is great8. you can unlock cool things in the game

2too few exercises

Posted: 12/08/2013

The Good:1. practical vocabulary for everyday use2. modern expressions3. good audio material4. teaches grammar equal to a one-year university course5. the grammar is explained well6. teaches you the Hangul script7. shows the phonetic pronounciation underneath the script8. realistic dialogues

The Bad:1. very small set of exercises2. the few exercises it does have are not effective at all3. the dialogues are often very difficult to follow because parts of their grammar is not explained in the current lesson but in future lessons

Bottomline: the ridiculously small set of exercises turns this potential textbook into a phrasebook. The best use for this book is in a classroom, as revision material, or as complement to a more detailed textbook.

5unimpressive graphics but good gameplay

Posted: 05/08/2013

The Good:1. the driving physics is convincingly good and consistent2. the AI are well programmed and ride cleanly3. a helmet-cam view adds to the immersion4. includes an official MotoGP commentator5. the first-person experience feels more realistic than previously6. standard aids; race line, rewind, brake and cornering help...7. standard components: career, time trial, championships...8. you can ride a clean race without worrying about bad AI9. covers all three MotoGP classes and all official riders and tracks10. video presentations of each country and racing location11. the weather effects feel convincing on the track12. offers an easy way to tune your bike13. a challenging game with a steep learning curve

The Bad:1. the graphics are not as impressive as in previous MotoGP games2. the constant shaking in first-person view will irritate some people3. the graphics looks glitchy when the bike shakes too much

5great but you need a dictionary too

Posted: 15/07/2013

This book teaches you Basic and Intermediate Hungarian grammar, i.e. most of what you need to have a solid command of the language.

The grammar is explained in both Hungarian and English. It is explained in a colloquial manner; this is not a book for linguists or academics. Myself, I am a self-learner and could understand the explanations without significant difficulty (Hungarian is an inherently difficult language after all, regardless of what book you learn from).

The grammar sections are kept very short at only one page or so, followed by a second page consisting of exercises. In total there are 110 lessons. I like that things are kept short so that you as a learner are not overpowered and confused by new grammatical concepts.

There are three negative things I have to say about the book:1. the grammar explanations in each lesson, being restricted to one-two pages worth of explanation, sometimes feel too short. People bad at grasping grammar might struggle with these short explanations eventhough examples are provided.

2. There are no vocabulary listings for many of the words introduced in each lesson. You will therefore need to have a dictionary at hand.

3. Instructions for the exercises are not given in English, only in Hungarian. You will therefore need to use a dictionary and/or deduce what to do from the given examples.

Still, these are minor issues because a book like this is rare, given that Hungarian is not a major language like German or French. In fact it is the very first grammar book on Hungarian I've seen that also has exercises in it, and that is aimed at beginners (as well as those at higher levels).

5no English if you live abroad

Foreign customers and English-speakers living abroad be aware that everything in this game will be presented in the native language of wherever your console happens to be.

For example if you live in the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and Germany the manues and voices will all be in the language of each respective country.

The in-game manue does not allow you to change to English.Great way to ruin the immersion of a game !

It is good that Turn10 allows people to play this game in their own language, however they should not FORCE those of us who want to play it in English to do so as well.

Also, nothing in the marketing of this game actually mentions this. Some warning would have been nice as I would not have bought the game had I known this. This is false or misleading marketing in my opinion.

If you want to play this game in English you need to either play offline or switch country location on your xbox settings to UK/US before you install the game and when you actually play it.

5arcade - pure motocross - official game

Posted: 18/03/2013

This is an official game of the FIM Motocross Championships. It has the official bikes, riders, and teams from the actual events. It covers three official events: MX1, MX2, and Motocross of Nations. These races are all normal races; you race against others and hope to win. The scoring system follows the real-life system where the accumulated score is the one that counts.

It has an additional more arcade-like championship where you do more acrade-style races (in addition to normal racing): head-to-head, checkpoint, tricks, etc. For this championship you have four fictional characters to level up, after earning credits from the races. You can also unlock new stuff for your bikers: helmets, clothes, etc.

Besides these you also have a trick battle mode where you can do freestyle stuff. This was OK but I liked the actual track racing more.

By the way, in this game you only ride motocross bikes, nothing else. This is not at all like the MX vs ATV games where you also have buggies and dirt trucks.

The graphics are great, it is a very colourful and nice-looking game. There's depth in the colours. Making the game look fresh and fun.

The tracks are modelled on what real-life FIM Motocross tracks look like. I follow the FIM Motocross races and can confirm that the tracks in the game are realistically designed.

The bike handling was nice. Although I did expect something more sim-like from Milestone, who specialize in simulation racing games (SBK, WRC, Superstars V8, MotoGP). I hope they do something more advanced in a potential sequel to MUD.

What is unique to MUD is the scrub technique. Something actual motocross riders use. Mastering the scrub technique in MUD was challenging. You need to know when to use it and when NOT to use it. This made learning the tracks very fun.

There are only 12 tracks in the game. However this is an official game, and there are only 12 tracks in the actual FIM Motocross events. In any case the SBK games have only 12-14 tracks in them as well.

If you make an official racing game you need to follow reality. Critics need to understand this simple logic, otherwise go back to pre-school and start again.

If you are looking for a simulation motocross game this is not it. There is no such game for the consoles. The MX vs ATV games are as arcade as MUD is.

To conclude. Racing in this game was intense, challenging and fun. The engine sounds were great. Visually the game looks fantastic. You have the actual riders, bikes and teams from the FIM Motocross races. There's real-time terrain deformation. There are fun arcade-style races you can do in addition to the normal races.

If you are looking for a game that focuses it's attention on true motocross racing this is the only game around for modern console. Especially if you want something that is based on actual real-life racing. MUD feels more serious and commited to the motocross sport than the MX vs ATV games, more mature. Maybe the target demographic is different. In any case, its a fun racing game.

5Yes !...finally a pure rally game

Posted: 19/07/2012

WRC is a game for those of us who like traditional rally.There are no buggies and trucks in WRC, and no non-rally competitions. WRC is all about cars and rally tracks.

It is unavoidable to not compare WRC to the Dirt games.The Dirt series is fun if you like driving different sorts of vehicles, doing different sorts of competitions, and you like an action-oriented driving style. I would argue that Dirt mainly represents American rally racing.

Personally I prefer a more traditional form of rally, where the focus is on the WRC sport and on the simulation experience. And WRC does feel more like a simulation game than the Dirt games do. WRC also feels closer to traditional European rally racing.

There is a lot to do in WRC; you can do single races, weekend races, championships etc. There are also a large number of different car classes to choose from. The races are lengthy and match what you need to do in the real WRC races. It is an official representation of WRC after all.

You can create your own character for the championships and build your own career from the ground up. There is also a fair bit of interactivity such as choosing sponsors. Being more of a simulation game there's plenty of car tuning options as well.

If you have been waiting for a proper rally racing game you should give WRC a shot.

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